Legend of the Guardians: The Snow White Queen
by DariaAlpha
Summary: A prequel about Nyra explaining how she became the evil owl she is in the movies. An egg is taken by the Pure Ones from two parents in the Northern Kingdoms as the Queen, Nyra, cannot produce chicks of her own. The egg hatches during an eclipse and Nyra names the chick after herself, hoping it will become her heir. But what if a crow whom Nyra II befriends could change everything?


**Author's note:** I wrote this well over a year ago, before any of my Alpha and Omega fanfictions, as a prequel about the Nyra we know from the movie, since we don't have as much background about her as we do in the books. This will acknowledge the events of the books as this takes place before the movie. I will also point out that, to avoid confusion, the Nyra in this first chapter is NOT the Nyra in the movie but an owl with the same name who was the Pure Ones' queen before the Nyra we all know. To tell them apart once she appears, the Nyra from the movies will be referred to as "Nyra II" (Nyra the second) and the Nyra before her will not have any title after her name, such as "Nyra I" (Nyra the first).

This entire story is complete but I just need to type it all out from my notebook. I plan to type about three chapters a day, minimum. It may or may not always go that way, but that is my intention.

The title is a reference to the song "Snow White Queen" by Evanescence, which is a fitting description of Nyra (the title, that is).

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

It was just after the end of an extremely violent storm when two Barn Owl parents ceased looking out of the opening in an ice cave. That was something they had been doing for the past several hours. They stopped just to look at their only egg, which was a few days away from hatching. The egg was lying in a nest made from molted feathers shed by both of its parents mixed with the softest moss they had managed to find before the storm. It also contained down plucked from both parents' breasts. Everytime the parents, especially the mother, set their eyes upon their only egg, they felt that the chick, no matter if it turned out to be a male or a female, would grow up to be an owl who would do good things for the owl kingdoms.

The parents of this single egg lived in the cave they were in now. It was a small ice cave on the coast of a small bay called the Bay of Fangs. It flowed into another, longer bay called the Firth of Fangs. The Firth of Fangs was, over a thousand years ago, the home of Theo—a Great Horned Owl who was famous for being the first blacksmith, or someone whose job is to make things out of metal. South of this area was the mountainous region known as the Ice Talons, home of the Ice Cliff Palace. Also, a thousand years ago, the Ice Cliff Palace had been the palace of King H'rath and Queen Siv of the Northern Owl Kingdoms. They had ruled from a young age until a corrupt Snowy Owl called Lord Arrin, a traitorous chieftain of a Kingdom bordering King H'rath's realm, made an alliance with a race of demonic owl-crow hybrids known as hagsfiends, supposedly now extinct. They took over the Ice Palace after Lord Arrin took up the beliefs of the hagsfiends and executed King H'rath through decapitation. Queen Siv had fled with a female Snowy Owl called Myrrthe, her faithful servant, nursemaid and governess, with the Queen's egg. Myrrthe was later decapitated by hagsfiends and her head was impaled on a pike, a type of spear. Svenka, a female polar bear, had rescued Siv twice. Siv's egg hatched with another Spotted Owl called Grank—the first collier, or carrier of coals—and Theo.

With the help of her new friend, a gadfeather—or wandering singer—called The Snow Rose…Siv saved her son's—Hoole—life from Ygryk, a female hagsfiend, and her mate Pleek, a male Great Horned Owl. These two later allied themselves with Kreeth, a female hagsfiend with strong powers of nachtmagen, an ancient dark magic, who'd saved them from being executed by hagsfiends working for Lord Arrin. Ygryk and Pleek had been loyal to Lord Arrin, but he had chosen to have them executed based on rumors that they had betrayed him to start a family. Of course, owls and hagsfiends could not mate and expect to have children of their own, despite the fact that hagsfiends were part owl.

Siv had not seen her son again until she had led an army of veteran owls, with The Snow Rose, in an attempt to save Hoole for a second time from Lord Arrin and his army of hagsfiends and haggish owls. They had been supported by the owls from the Northern Owl Kingdom who had been loyal to King H'rath and Queen Siv before he had been murdered. In the battle, which Lord Arrin's forces had been defeated in, Siv had been mortally wounded by Lord Arrin and died in her son's wings.

Hoole later led his late mother's forces to the tree on an island in the middle of the Sea of Hoolemere—known by the name Sea of S'yrthgar when this took place, but later renamed to honor Hoole—in the Southern Owl Kingdoms, formerly known as Kingdoms of S'yrthgar. S'yrthgar was Hoolian, the language of the Southern Owl Kingdoms, for "Southern". N'yrthgar was Krakish, the language of the Northern Owl Kingdoms, for "Northern." In that tree on this island was where the Guardians of Ga'Hoole was formed over a thousand years earlier. After some training, Hoole had led the Guardians of Ga'Hoole back to the Northern Owl Kingdoms to reclaim the Ice Palace from Lord Arrin's forces. By the end, both Lord Arrin and Kreeth were killed and Hoole reclaimed the palace. Hoole himself had killed Lord Arrin and a dire wolf called Duncan had killed Kreeth.

To the west of the Ice Palace and the two bays were the H'rathghar Glacier and H'rathghar Mountains, which had been named for King H'rath after the Guardians of Ga'Hoole had reclaimed the Ice Palace to honor the murdered owl. To the west of this area were the Bitter Sea and the Glauxian Brothers' Retreat, where Hoole had hatched on the island this retreat was located. In the Everwinter Sea to the south were seven islands. In Kiel Bay, there was an archipelago—a large group of small islands—called The Tridents, and then Stormfast Island. The other three islands were called Elsemere Island—the home of the Glauxian Sisters' Retreat, the Ice Dagger, and Dark Fowl Island. The ice Narrows was the only other notable landmark in the Northern Owl Kingdoms not only because it connected the Northern and Southern Owl Kingdoms, but also it was the location of the ice cave where Kreeth had lived. Buy now, unlike a thousand years ago, the Northern Owl Kingdoms was united under the rule of a single family that was descents of Hoole.

The Southern Owl Kingdoms was not united under the rule of a singer family like the Northern Owl Kingdoms was. The state of the Southern Owl Kingdoms was comparable to the state of the Northern Owl Kingdoms a thousand years ago. The only two kingdoms that were still free, and under the rule of two different families, were at war with a massive ruling family known as The Pure Ones that had conquered the majority of the Southern Owl Kingdoms during the length of the hundred-year war they'd been fighting to seize control of all the Southern Owl Kingdoms. They planned to conquer the Northern Owl Kingdoms once they had conquered the South. The Pure Ones were not in the role of the Hoolian Dynasty, but they were the rulers of three-quarters of the Southern Owl Kingdoms. The Pure One's origins could be traced back to the army of owls who had fought against Queen Siv and Hoole's armies a thousand years ago. The group formed not long after the battle in the beyond where Siv died when several Barn Owls had been separated from Lord Arrin's army, who had fled back to the Northern Owl Kingdoms, leaving all stragglers behind. Even more Barn Owls had joined the Pure Ones' ranks after the Ice Palace was recaptured by the Guardians of Ga'Hoole.

This "ruling family" of Barn Owls had begun spreading their idea that only owls belonging to the genus Tyto were pure, hence their name "The Pure Ones." The genus Tyto included the following species, in order of "pureness" among The Pure Ones:

Common Barn Owl (_Tyto alba_)

Eastern Barn Owl (_Tyto alba delicatula_)

Andaman Barn Owl (_Tyto alba deroepstorffi_)

Australian Masked Owl (_Tyto novaehollandiae_)

Tasmanian Masked Owl (_Tyto novaehollandiae castanopsis_)

Golden Masked Owl (_Tyto aurantia_)

Moluccan Masked Owl (_Tyto novaehollandiae sororcula_)

Buru Masked Owl (_Tyto novaehollandiae cayelii_)

Seram Masked Owl (_Tyto almae_)

Andaman Masked Owl (_Tyto deroepstorffi_)

Manus Masked Owl (_Tyto novaehollandiae manusi_)

Taliabu Masked Owl (_Tyto nigrobrunnea_)

Minahassa Masked Owl (_Tyto inexspectata_)

Sulawesi Masked Owl (_Tyto rosenbergii_)

Peleng Masked Owl (_Tyto rosenbergii pelengensis_)

African Grass Owl (_Tyto capensis_)

Eastern Grass Owl (_Tyto longimembris_)

Red Owl (_Tyto soumagnei_)

Ashy-faced Owl (_Tyto glaucops_)

Greater Sooty Owl (_Tyto tenebricosa_)

Lesser Sooty Owl (_Tyto multipunctata_)

In the thousand years since their formation, just as many owls had and still do believe in this caste system of Barn Owl Purity. Although The Pure Ones now considered themselves one massive ruling family, the truth was that only their King, Queen, and those owls' offspring and relatives were related. But it could not be argued that The Pure Ones were not the strongest army in any of the owl kingdoms. Ever since becoming a military force, they had conquered the once free territories of Shadow Forest, Silverveil, St. Aegolius Canyons, The Barrens, and the Desert of Kuneer. There was only one reason they would never tread on the Peninsula of the Spirit Woods. Every since the time of Hoole, and all the centuries before him, it was a place where the scrooms, or lost souls, of dead owls ended up when they had unfinished business, such as their murderer still being alive after he or she was killed. The Forest Kingdoms of Tyto and Ambala, the Beyond the Beyond, and the Island of Hoole were still their own kingdoms, or territories in the case of the Beyond, because all of these owls had, and still were, allied together in the war against The Pure Ones. The same was true about the Northern Kingdoms, who had supported the Southern Kingdom Owls on a few occasions that they would have been defeated by The Pure Ones otherwise.

The two parent Barn Owls, a species that the majority of The Pure Ones ranks were made up by, would be among the highest-ranking owls if they were Pure Ones. Their hierarchy was based on the whiteness of Barn Owls' faces. Common Barn Owls had the whitest faces of any Tyto genus owl, and therefore, were the highest-ranking members of The Pure Ones army. Masked Owls were next, then Ashy-Faced Owls, and lastly Sooty Owls. The last three species had gray or black feathers, therefore the lowest ranking members of The Pure Ones, who were not allowed to fight with The Pure Ones' army unless it was absolutely necessary, even if all owls were part of that army. The only reason most Barn Owls chose to stay in areas under the rule of The Pure Ones was how well they believed they had been treated for their loyalty. But that meant giving up any eggs the female owls laid, no matter what species or genus they were. It was not just Tytos whose eggs were taken by The Pure Ones, but any owls who planned to start families. All young Tyto Owls were forced to join The Pure ones when they were eggs, but all the adults who had been free when The Pure Ones conquered the territory were not required to, but all future generations were. Non-Tyto owls were forced to become slaves, no matter what generation they were.

Although these two Barn Owls lived in the Northern Owl Kingdoms, they knew what was going on in the Southern Owl Kingdoms. They knew that The Pure Ones were stealing eggs and quite often came into the Northern Owl Kingdoms to steal eggs.

If this ever did happen to them, the parents had an endless amount of plans to protect their first and only egg. But if all these plans failed, Glaux forbid, they would have no choice but to relinquish their egg or they would be killed by The Pure Ones' scouts or soldiers. It was they either lost something that could be replaced somewhat easily—their egg—or they lost something they could not replace easily—their lives. But if they were caught by The Pure Ones in the act of hiding their egg in the excess moss in their hollow, they would lie and claim they had been doing it to keep the egg warm, not to hide it. That would be believable because of the weather here. It was always cold in the Northern Owl Kingdoms, even during the summer.

Regardless of any possible scenario, these were Barn Owls were frightful about the chance of The Pure Ones finding them and possibly taking their egg. It would not be possible for them to escape to the Ice Cliff Palace in time. It was impossible because they would have to get out of their ice cave with the egg, then flee to the Bay of Fangs then around the coast of the Ice Talons. But if they did somehow reach the Ice Cliff Palace, surely The Pure Ones' scouts and soldiers would not be foolish enough to intrude another ruling family's palace to get something—an egg—that was not rightfully theirs.

But it seemed that now they were completely oblivious of two oddly large Barn Owls flying over the Bay of Fangs. They appeared to be wearing helmets and battle claws. These owls' heads and feet glimmered in what little sunlight showed through the still-fading storm clouds. It became clearer, based on the direction they were flying, that the two owls were flying toward the ice cave of the two Barn Owls. The parents had not yet hidden their only egg when these two massive Barn Owls flew through the mouth of their ice cave. They should have known who to suspect based on the golden color of their armor and the design on the armor. Their speculation was confirmed when the two Barn Owls took their golden masks off and carefully placed them on the floor of the ice cave. The female owl, who was on the right, was Nyra, the queen of the Pure Ones, who was named after a powerful owl who had died over a thousand years ago. That ancient Nyra was said to have hatched during a lunar eclipse, as had the Nyra who was in this ice cave now. It was common knowledge about all of the owls who made up The Pure Ones' kingdom and anywhere else in the Northern and Southern Owl Kingdoms. Owls hatched during an eclipse were said to become extremely powerful owls and would be destined to use his or her power for good or evil. The ancient Nyra had been a good owl, once an advisor for King H'rath and later his son King Hoole. But the Nyra who was the queen of the Pure Ones was one of the evilest owls in the history of the own kingdoms since Lord Arrin in the time of Hoole.

The male owl to the left of Nyra was the king of The Pure Ones, only known by the name "The High Tyto." It was said that only Nyra knew his real name, for she was his mate, albeit sterile and unable to produce chicks of her own due to her albinism. Nyra was condemned to never have chicks and she hated being reminded of it. She had once decapitated an owl for just mentioning a sterile albino owl. And that dead owl had not even done so negatively.

The mother spoke, attempting to sound as polite as possible, for she was speaking to an owl with a haggish temper. "May I ask what brings you here?"

"Yes. You may," Nyra said. Her tone was anything but polite, but was as nice of a tone one could expect from an owl like her. She always had a rough affliction to her voice, even when she was happy. "We are here for your egg. I am searching for an owl to be my heir, as I am a sterile owl due to my condition. Albinism."

"I am sorry to hear that," the mother owl said sincerely. "I once knew an albino owl.."

"You should be sorry for opening your worthless beak, you fool," the High Tyto snapped, feeling that Nyra was offended by this owl's statement, kind or not. He was wrong and Nyra let him know it immediately.

"Now just hand over the egg and we'll both leave peacefully," Nyra said. "I'm not here to cause trouble in a kingdom that isn't mine…yet. I would hate to cause trouble and even deaths over my want of a child, an heir."

"Take your damn customs and choke on them," the father spat, "and then go to Hagsmire." Hagsmire was Hoolian (the language of the Southern Kingdom) for Hell. This statement would become his last act in life. Although neither of these larger owls spoke, the High Tyto lifted himself into the air. His battle-clawed talons split through that air and then an owl's throat. There was a gush of blood as the father owl met death before hitting the ground, his throat slashed at the jugular vein. The blood not only quickly formed a pool but had also sprayed all over the other three Barn Owls' pure white faces. The dead owl's mate screamed.

"Your mate made a grave mistake," Nyra told the wailing widow, "by insulting our customs. Now hand over the egg and I'll make sure you're given a good amount of gold"

She looked at her dead mate then Nyra once again. "No," was all the widowed Barn owl said. "Keep your gold. I'll keep my egg. It is all I have left." This was also the mother's last words before Nyra's battle claws took her head off in a single blow. Her head went off in one direction and the body in another. Blood gushed from the stump where he had once been attached.

"It's a shame they both died over an egg, of all things," Nyra sighed. "But all we can do now is take the egg back to our palace and raise it as our own." The owls put their helmets back on and Nyra took hold of the egg with a gentle grasp of her port talon.

The two owls left the ice cave feeling no remorse at all over what they had done to get this egg that would soon hatch and become the heir to the pure queen's throne.


End file.
